Community Scramble (SWC089 January 2025) - Sample Collection Thread - Submissions until 24-DEC-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Special Songwriting Competition - Community Scramble (2025)


This thread covers the first part of our yearly recurring challenge - collecting samples - which are then used in the actual Songwriting Competition in January 2025 (SWC089) as basis for every participant. That also marks the biggest twist of this game - you are only allowed to use the provided samples to create music out of it.

The "how?" is completely up to you. You can use sampling/re-sampling techniques, granular synthesis, wavetable synthesis, you can mangle the sounds through time stretching, distortion, modulation, etc. As long as you only use what has been provided by the community in form of sound snippets and/or samples.

To allow more genre creativity during the actual songwriting game: You are allowed to add a guitar or bass, as long as your recording is mangled in some shape or form. The focus is on sound design! Not just guitar > DI > amp suite preset. You can also add vocals and ad-libs (your own voice or a collaborating singer, no vocal synthesizer), or sound effects created from your voice (think: breathing, shouts, grunts, robot voice, etc).



Please read up more about this idea, and find the last "Community Scramble(s)" here:

► Show Spoiler

Songwriting Competition - new game idea: Community Scramble

Songwriting Competition - SWC077 January 2024 (Community Scramble)
Songwriting Competition - SWC065 January 2023 (Community Scramble)
Songwriting Competition - SWC053 January 2022 (Community Scramble)
Songwriting Competition - SWC041 January 2021 (Community Scramble)
Songwriting Competition - SWC029 January 2020 (Community Scramble)
Songwriting Competition - SWC017 January 2019 (Community Scramble)

Image Source: Pixabay, photo by Nachrichten_muc, released under Creative Commons CC0




GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frames:
Sample Collection: Monday, 01st October 2024 to Tuesday, 24th December 2024 (85 days)
Songwriting Competition: Wednesday, 01st January 2025 to Friday, 24th January 2025 (24 days)

Sample submission will end on Tuesday, 24-DEC-2024, 23:59 UTC+1/CET (Germany) - until further notice.


The deadline is the same as for SWC088 / December 2024. Please check in with the Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. There will be reminders via the Newsletter, Social Media accounts, and Discord.

Overall rules: The rules of the Songwriting Competition apply, with the main difference that you're (currently) not allowed to use any other sound source than the ones provided from this sample collection thread. Exceptions might apply.

How to submit sample content:

• each community member shall ideally provide no less than three (number: 3), but also no more than seven (number: 7) self-created sounds
• the provided samples must not be from free sample packages, but created by yourself. The content can be synthetic in nature or a Foley type recording (please keep things appropriate!), anything from single hits and stabs, to loops
• due to various legal grey-zones, submitting sounds created from prompts with AI tools are not allowed for this game
• the material must be in 44/24 WAV bar minimum, and 96/24 WAV absolute maximum
• the material shall ideally not peak higher than -1.00 dBFS to prevent clipping
• IMPORTANT: bundle the following filled out TXT, which adds full credits to your work (download TXT)
• the samples and TXT must be packed in a ZIP or RAR, then uploaded to any file storage to your liking (recommended systems that store longer than 7 days, like Google Drive, DropBox, etc)
• Link to the file in this thread, with some short info what you recorded (basically mirroring what has been written in the TXT)
• you can also utilize Discord - please use the #questions-gossip-answers section for that

From all entries, around 30 samples (maybe more) will be selected to be a "starter bundle" for the SWC in question. In order for this endeavor to be successful, we need about 6 entries with five samples per participant each. If there is not enough material, or not of enough variety, the challenge can not happen as designed. If there is too much or overlapping content, things might be trimmed down or used for future games of similar nature.

Once the material has been prepared, the game starts on time on 01st January 2025. It is highly recommended to provide audio content early on, which makes it easier for me to set things up. Thanks in advance.



AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you only want to provide content, please feel free to do so. If you rather only join the game and not have the pressure to be asked to "create source material" as well, that's just as fine.

You do not need to join both the Sample Collection thread and the follow-up Songwriting Competition.



PRO TIPS (for submitting sample content):

► Show Spoiler

TIP 01:

You can influence the overall "tone" of SWC089 by providing source material for a genre you would like to hear/work in yourself. For example: if you provide a self-created acoustic drum loop, this can be used for Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, Lounge, etc. With clever sound design however, it can also work for Electronic or Industrial.

You set the initial stage, what you make out of it, is up to your personal creativity.


TIP 02:

As example: let's assume there has been an abundance of "Industrial based samples". Depending on your creativity, you can still turn this material into a more pop oriented electronic production, or any other genre you feel like. "Out of the box" thinking will help you in this game. Who says you need to use a full sample and not just a snippet? Ever turned a noise snippet or a click into Cymbals and Snare-like sounds? Why not use a sound snippet to create a new wavetable oscillator? Why not use a Granular Synthesizer to create pads?

All this will be your challenge for January 2025.

Let's get creative!